privileges.




Chapter I.

Of the Qualifications of Candidates.



The qualifications of a candidate for initiation into the mysteries of
Freemasonry, are four-fold in their character--moral, physical,
intellectual and political.

The moral character is intended to secure the respectability of the Order,
because, by the worthiness of its candidates, their virtuous deportment,
and good reputation, will the character of the institution be judged,
while the admission of irreligious libertines and contemners of the moral
law would necessarily impair its dignity and honor.

The physical qualifications of a candidate contribute to the utility of
the Order, because he who is deficient in any of his limbs or members, and
who is not in the possession of all his natural senses and endowments, is
unable to perform, with pleasure to himself or credit to the fraternity,
those peculiar labors in which all should take an equal part. He thus
becomes a drone in the hive, and so far impairs the usefulness of the
lodge, as "a place where Freemasons assemble to work, and to instruct and
improve themselves in the mysteries of their ancient science."